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Morton Feldman (b. 1926 d. 1987)
Introduction Morton Feldman was born in Queens New York into a family of Russian - Jewish immigrant parents. He studied piano as a child. One of his first composition teachers, Wallingford Riegger, was an early follower of Schoenberg and Sefan Wolpe. His formative years in New York he aligned himself with the work of John Cage, Earle Brown and Christian Wilff as well as gravitating to the Modernist painters of this era, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Philip Guston. With Cages encouragement, he began to compose using new systems of graphically based scoring eschewing old systems of Western design. These methods were used up through into the early 70's until he started moving away from the graphical systems of notation and arhythmic work to a more rhythmically precise method. through all of this he made his living in the family textile business until he began a professorship at the University of Buffalo as Edgard Varese Professor, (a title of his own devising). In his later life he wrote a number of longer works from 2 to 6 six hours long. Work Analysis In general his music has a considered yet seemingly improvised sound. The Chamber music is more architectural than musical. The lack of dynamics in much of his work leads to an almost hypnotic or narcotic effect on the listener. At times very tonal in nature but unlike La Mont young, more interested in The often noted paradox is that this immense, verbose man wrote music that seldom rose above a whisper. In the noisiest century in history, Feldman chose to be glacially slow and snowily soft. Chords arrive one after another, in seemingly haphazard sequence, interspersed with silences. Harmonies hover in a no man’s land between consonance and dissonance, paradise and oblivion. Rhythms are irregular and overlapping, so that the music floats above the beat. Simple figures repeat for a long time, then disappear. There is no exposition or development of themes, no clear formal structure. Certain later works unfold over extraordinarily lengthy spans of time, straining the capabilities of performers to play them and audiences to hear them. Comparisons John Cage, and modernist painters are the most obvious of his influences as the splashes and slow moving colors are like the brush strokes on a canvas. Some of his chordal colors resemble what might be accomplished in a 12 tone row fashion but without any obvious forward motion. "If a man teaches composition in a university, how can he not be a composer? He has worked hard, learned his craft. Ergo, he is a composer. A professional. Like a doctor. But there is that doctor who opens you up, does exactly the right thing, closes you up—and you die. He failed to take the chance that might have saved you. Art is a crucial, dangerous operation we perform on ourselves. Unless we take a chance, we die in art." Observations Feldmans music is meditative in a random way, very much as Cage might have done. You have to give yourself up to the music and let it drive or you may become frustrated with the glacial pace of things waiting for a theme, cadence or dynamic climax of some sort. One can actively or passively listen to his music and still understand the nature of how repeated patterns can have a psychological effect on the listener. It has an obsessive sound to it, with short repeated patterns of chords or melodic snippets that repeat for minutes at a time. Works Cited https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Feldman http://www.cnvill.net/mfhome.htm http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/06/19/american-sublime https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2012/nov/12/morton-feldman-contemporary-music-guide http://www.classical-music.com/blog/morton-feldman-exuberant-dissent